■^ Anthropology : Physical 



earthenware pots, and brass kettles (bought from European and 

 Liberian traders) ; knives (either of native or European manu- 

 facture), wooden spoons, wooden howls of all sizes, and wooden 

 platters. The pots are made ot red or black clay, and are 

 sometimes quite artistic in design, studded with round knobs 

 or engraved with variegated patterns. The spoons, which are cut 

 out of solid pieces of wood, exhibit a surprising flmcy and skill 

 in their intricate carving and ornament. Grain and other 

 comestibles are pounded in the large wooden mortars^ with 



393. A \1LLAGE I\ Till; bAUU OK bAI'U LOUMKV, EAMLK.N LIHliKIA 



wooden pestles, so familiar to the traveller throughout Negro 

 Africa. They, too, are cut from solid blocks of wood (the 

 African is quite ignorant of joinery). Sun-dried bricks (in lieu 

 of stones) are used to build up the hearth. 



There are few of those cylindrical, clay-plastered granaries 

 so universal throughout Moslem, Nilotic, and Bantu Africa. 

 Occasionally one is met with in a Vai village. Grain is stored in 

 the rafters of houses, between the thatch and the ceiling of palm 



' Vai name, wunu. 

 1003 



